Georgy Yaroslavtsev, war hero and prominent geologist

We continue sharing stories about KFU students and employees who contributed to the victory in the Great Patriotic War (1941 – 1945).

Georgy Antonovich Yaroslavtsev was born on August 16, 1916 in the village of Yugo-Kamsky, Okha District, Perm Oblast. In 1933, he entered the first course of the evening preparatory faculty at Kazan University. In 1937, after graduating from the preparatory school, Georgy Yaroslavtsev entered the first year of the geological faculty of Kazan University.

“From the beginning of the Patriotic War in June 1941 I was appointed acting head of the geological party. Here I cannot help telling about one extraordinary episode. There was a worker in my party named Subbotin. At the beginning of the war he addressed me with a request: “I’m going to go to the war by conscription. I have two children left, the eldest daughter is 9 years old, the youngest is 5 years old. My wife has died. The children remain homeless. I urge you to take care of my children”. I applied to the district executive committee, district party committee, but everywhere I got the answer: “There are no children’s homes in the district, we can’t arrange for the children”. Then naively I wrote a letter to Stalin, in which I asked to exempt Subbotin from military service due to family circumstances. And what do you think? My request was granted, and Subbotin returned to his children. At the end of July 1941 my geological party was mothballed due to the reduction of state budget expenditures. I returned to Kazan to the university at the beginning of August. I and a group of my fellow students were asked to pass the state exams. On August 11 I passed the state exam, on August 13 I received my diploma, and on August 15, 1941 I left for the army. The military enlistment office sent me to the Irkutsk school of military geodesists, which I graduated in the fall of 1942 with the rank of sergeant and was sent to the Irkutsk 63rd Geodesic Detachment. In February 1943 I was seconded to the General Staff, where I was assigned to the 61st Geodesic Detachment on the Volkhov Front,” says an excerpt from his autobiography.

In January 1944, the detachment was transferred to the Karelian Front, where Yaroslavtsev was assigned to the 856th Artillery Regiment of the 313rd Rifle Division. After the liberation of the city of Petrozavodsk the division was named 313th Petrozavodsk twice awarded with the Red Banner, Order of Lenin, Order of Kutuzov Rifle Division.

In September 1944 Finland concluded an armistice. The war on the Karelian Front ended. 313th Petrozavodsk Division after a short rest in Cherepovets was transferred to the order of the 2nd Belorussian Front, where Yaroslavtsev fought until the end of the war. In September 1945 he was demobilized and returned to Kazan. He was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War and two medals ‘For Bravery’.

After demobilization, Yaroslavtsev worked as a Senior Geologist of Sergievsk and then Chapaevsk oil exploration office. Since the fall of 1951 – Chief Geologist of Chapaevsk office of exploratory drilling of the Kuibyshevneft Association, then – chief geologist of the state trust Stavropolburneft, which was subordinate to the Ministry of Oil Industry of the USSR. In 1956-1960 – Chief Geologist of the Sernovodsk office of exploratory drilling, then Chief Geologist of the trust Pervomayburneft. From 1963 to 1976 Georgy Yaroslavtsev worked as Chief Geologist of the trust Kuibyshevneftegeofizika. He was awarded the titles of Distinguished Geologist of the RSFSR and Honorary Geologist of the USSR.